How to Eat while on Vacation
I have been away from my home this week. Specifically, I have been in Dallas, TX for some business meetings and a lot of people asked me what were my eating patterns while away from home.
Thought I would share with you how I eat while on vacation in general. At least in most occasions. It’s actually a very standard process for the last 2 years.
It helps that I mostly travel with some of my very close buddies so they follow the same schedule as well. But still what I am going to propose is a very efficient way to eat while you are away from home, that you can suggest to your company.
It’s dead simple. Eat once during the late afternoon.
What are the reasons for that?
First of all, you need to have enough time to do any activities you’d like to do while on vacation.
For example, if you are visiting a place for the first time, you may want to go to museums and other hot spots in the city. If you need to include in your schedule 2-3 stops for eating it will reduce significantly your available time to do all those things.
Another thing is insulin spikes. When you eat carbs or protein, your food is broken down into glucose. The type of energy your body needs.
In order to take that glucose and transfer it from your blood to your cells, your body is producing insulin in the pancreas.
So insulin is produced to take the glucose out of the bloodstream and into the cells. This, in turn, drops your glucose level more severely if the type of carbs is high glycemic, or the carbs you’re eating are too many (glycemic load).
This sudden drop in glucose levels make you lethargic in the beginning and then you crave food. Especially carbs.
So in essence, eating something that spikes your insulin levels, will cause you to get hungry earlier than expected.
There is a tiny sweet spot in there, where if you’re hungry and consume something comprised of fat, protein and/or fiber, it will make your hunger go away for a great amount time. The fewer calories the better.
How do I stay hungry free until late afternoon?
That’s only a problem for the first or second (mostly the first) day. After only one day you will be accustomed to eating only once per day.
If you really having a tough time staying away from food, I would suggest a bag of kale chips, with something spicy, like paprika, cayenne pepper or garlic. It will keep you full for longer and it is totally portable so you don’t even have to stop to eat.
Eating nothing is actually better and easier to adhere to, than trying to find something very specific to keep your appetite at bay.
Eating nothing is actually better and easier to adhere to Share on XAlso, drink great loads of water. Water will keep you full and you won’t mistake the feeling of being hungry with that of being thirsty.
Another tip for staying hunger-free is to have 1-2 cups of coffee. Again, totally portable, will keep you more alert during the day and will help a lot with your appetite. No sugar works better but if you can’t handle black coffee, go with a little Splenda or stevia sweeteners.
Coffee won’t make you lose your sleep, especially if you have only one meal during the evening. That meal will actually increase your melatonin levels and the extra calories in one seating, will raise your insulin and make you lethargic pretty quick.
What do I eat as my one main meal?
That’s the most fun part.
WHATEVER YOU WANT.
You are on vacation you don’t need to be strict.
After some time of dieting, you will start to appreciate more food more. Plus, as we said in the last article, you should love yourself and your body, thus you wouldn’t consume any processed or greasy food unless it gives you extra points on the happiness scale.
Is there something you definitely wanna have? My new US addiction was Reese’s peanut butter cups. :/
If you just want to have something to eat and you’re not craving something specific, I would pick a very healthy option with lots of protein. Like a steak with some roasted vegetables or a big salad with some grilled chicken. Try to avoid big amounts of sauce.
But if there’s something that will make you really happy, go ahead and have that. What you eat at 7-day vacation is like less 10% of a 3-month effort. So who cares?
As I have told you so many times, what can keep you on your diet (having a cheat meal) is the best option.
Now there’s a small caveat. This little rule of “whatever you want”, only applies if your vacation lasts less than 10-12 days. If it’s above that then I suggest you make a small strategy of eating healthy meals mainly and then have some free meals every 2-3 days.
Anything else I can do to stay fit while on vacation?
My last advice is if you really want to stay active, pack your running shoes. A little morning running followed by some push-ups or planks is actually the best kind of workout you can have during vacation.
Spend 30-40 mins for the whole workout, take a shower and go ahead and enjoy your day. It will also make you feel more energetic during your scheduled activities.
That’s all for today, I hope it helped you feel relaxed about eating away from home.
Let me know in the comments if you have any other ideas on how to eat while on vacation.